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Explain snapshot

If Visual Explain is installed on your workstation, you can examine the contents of an explain snapshot.

An explain snapshot is compressed information that is collected when an SQL statement is explained. It is stored as a binary large object (BLOB) in the EXPLAIN_STATEMENT table, and contains the following information:

An explain snapshot is required if you want to display the graphical representation of an SQL statement's access plan. To ensure that an explain snapshot is created:

  1. Explain tables must exist in the database manager to store the explain snapshots. For information on how to create these tables, see Creating explain tables.

  2. For a package containing static SQL statements, set the EXPLSNAP option to ALL or YES when you bind or prep the package. You will get an explain snapshot for each explainable SQL statement in the package. For more information on the BIND and PREP commands, see the Command Reference.

  3. For dynamic SQL statements, set the EXPLSNAP option to ALL when you bind the application that issues them, or set the CURRENT EXPLAIN SNAPSHOT special register to YES or EXPLAIN before you issue them interactively. For more information, see the section on current explain snapshots in the SQL Reference.

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